Fishing for cod in the Gulf of St. Lawrence is “dreaming in color”

The president of the Acadian Regional Federation of Professional Fishermen (FRAPP), Jean Lanteigne, finds that the reopening in Newfoundland and Labrador is very good news. However, there is no hope.

This will probably allow us to have better cod in our grocery stores.does he think. We would like to have the same thing here. But, it is a bit dreaming in colors, with the climatic conditions, all the changes that we are experiencing in the south of the Gulf, to think that we would see a return of cod.

An unimpressive quota

Alyre Gauvin, originally from Île-de-Lamèque, is a retired fisherman. He fished cod, as captain, for twenty years.

“It gives me a little pang in my heart that someone is going to go fishing for cod. It’s a fishery that we really liked,” he says.

But the quota of 18,000 tonnes allocated for cod is far from impressing him.

I’m a little disappointed he said. This is a very marginal quota. The Newfoundland region is still a large region. This quantity is not something that will revive the cod fishing industry.

Like Jean Lanteigne of the Acadian Regional Federation of Professional FishermenFRAPPAlyre Gauvin believes that we should not entertain false hopes by imagining a commercial cod fishery in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

A historic fishing

The president of the Maritime Fishermen’s Union (UPM), Réjean Comeau, also has the same opinion. As is the case with many experienced fishermen when they talk about cod, he seems nostalgic.

Well, let’s say it’s more symbolic.he says, talking about the cod quota. For people from the Gulf, from the Maritimes, whether they are from Prince Edward Island or New Brunswick, it is important. Before lobster and snow crab, there was cod. My grandfather and my father fished for cod. And me toohe remembers.

Although they can no longer fish for cod, fishermen from New Brunswick’s Acadian communities still like to talk about this fish, which has become almost mythical.